I use something like this:
$opts = array(
'http'=>array(
'method'=>"GET",
'header'=>"Accept-language: en\r\n" .
"Cookie: ljloggedin=".$userid.";ljmastersession=" .$session."\r\n" ) );
$url = 'http://'.$journal.'.livejournal.com/'.$ditemid.'.html?format=light';
$context = stream_context_create($opts);
$tempFile = file_get_contents($url, false, $context);
Userid something like
u25378835:s1 and session v1:u25378835:s1:t1297530000:gc7f